Roots Author Alex Haley Talks of the Horrors of Slavery

Alex Haley (August 11th, 1921 – February 10th, 1992) was an American author, best known for his 1976 Pulitzer Prize winning book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, adapted to a series a year later in 1977.

While a fantastic story, Roots was not without controversy and its release was marred by accusations of plagiarism (proven to be partly true), and doubts cast on the authenticity of the family ties. Today the book is accepted to be a work of fiction, and controversy aside is still a worthy read with an important message.

Alex Haley is no longer with us, but from the archives we have this interview with the author from 1977 where he talks of slavery and the horrors of that time.

Many people just pick up a book, read it and decide from there whether they love it or not, for others the gender of the author is important. The gender gap in literature has been present for years, perpetuated through history by male nom de plumes and lack of respect generally for female literature.

Some bookshops have even gone so far as to create visual experiments to show how many of the shelves are dominated by male authors.

British author Andrea Levy was born on 7 March 1956 to Jamaican parents. Her father came to Britain on Empire Windrush in 1948, and her mother followed not long after. It is no surprise then, that Levy’s experience of growing up black in a country that was still predominately white is reflected in her novels which focus on the Windrush Generation, British Jamaicans and their experiences of racial, cultural and national identity.

The son of J. D Salinger has confirmed that the author of The Catcher in the Rye wrote a significant amount of work that has never been seen and that he and his father’s widow are preparing the previously unseen work for publication.

Its eight years since Salinger died in 2010 leaving behind a body of published works including the iconic The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, For Esme with Love and Squalor and other works. However, the author had not published anything since 1965’s New Yorker story Hapworth 16, 1924, his last published work.Read More

Rosamunde Pilcher, author of The Shell Seekers, and other wholesome novels has died at the age of 94 her agent confirmed yesterday. The novelist who penned nearly thirty romance and fiction books between 1949 and 2000 when she retired died following a short illness.

Pilcher was born Rosamunde E. M. L Scott on 22nd September 1924 in Lelant on the north coast of Cornwall and began writing aged 7. She was just 15 when she had her first short story published. In the late 1940s Pilcher began to write for Mills & Boon, publishing her stories under the pseudonym Jane Fraser.

Sylvester Stallone may be most well known for being the Hollywood tough guy who made his breakthrough in the hugely popular Rocky films, but did you know that for almost half a century he’s been working on-and-off on a screenplay for a biopic about the famed writer Edgar Allan Poe?

Work for a Million is a novel by Eve Zaremba which was first published in 1986. It was written by an out lesbian author and is described as being the first pulp novel to feature an out lesbian detective, Helen Keremos, as its protagonist.

To celebrate their five-year anniversary, a Canadian publisher, Bedside press, are reprinting the original novel with a new cover by Sami Kivelä, finally bringing this work back from its long out-of-print stint. Read More